Quote from: sir_modulusSo,  it is pretty cheap and $200 for the amp. That cab is $100 extra, and this is with using pretty good components.

An amp is pretty useless without a cab, so don't discount that cost

Like I said before, $300 for a scratch build is a lot once you consider the price of used amps.  $300 will easily get you a SF Champ with $$ left over, and you don't have to buy any tools or put anything together.

Quote from: cdLike I said before, $300 for a scratch build is a lot once you consider the price of used amps.  $300 will easily get you a SF Champ with $$ left over, and you don't have to buy any tools or put anything together.

But you don't get the fun of building your own amp!

can i jump on the price wars too..


Potentiometer(circuit speicalist):
1M Audio Taper @  ea x1 = $01.49

Transformers(antique electronics):
Power @ $35.00 ea x1 = $35.00
Output @ $25.16  ea x1 = $25.16

Tubes(Ansil):

12AX7EH = $04.50
5Y3GT = $04.00

Extras:
Knob(black skirted) 1$
Power Cord(marshall + input socket) = $5
SPST switch (on/off/standby) = $1

Jumbo Led and holder for pilot light.  $4.50
Jacks (2 input + 1 output)(switchcraft) = $03.00
9 pin socket (/wshield) = $01.95
18 ga. stranded, shielded, 25ft = $02.00
Amp Chassis(circuit specialist)(hammond D style box) = $10.00

circuit also has quite a few nice capacitors cheap there too..  there are plenty of resources on the web to find great deals.

sorry my .02

Thanks Ansil,

        What my point was that unlike many other amps, The champ(and other little fender amps) have decent output, are easy to build, use cheap and readily available tubes, have many little guides and simple mods, and the maintainence is much lower (as even the biasing is easy)

Some of the above mentioned amps can be a little bit of a problem:(please take no offence in what I say as I mean it in a respectful manner)

Firefly: this is good for a first tube build, but for the price, the power output is not that great

Octal fatness: real good amp, but the input tube is not very easy to find.

Vox: very difficult to maintain(as before mentioned)

18 Watter: Uses more tubes and for a more experianced builder, but is equal if not better to the champ for cost to performance to ease of building.


So, IMO, you should embark on a small fender amp(again I recommend Champs or Princeton's for the above mentioned reasons) or a AX84 P1 if you do not feel too confident on your abilities, but if you feel more confident, go on to do a minimanistic 18Watter clone.

LM 250+

Quote from: Ansilcircuit also has quite a few nice capacitors cheap there too..  there are plenty of resources on the web to find great deals.

If you don't buy as much as you can from one place, or locally, you're shooting yourself in the foot because of shipping costs.  

Look, I don't want to get into a d*ck waving contest over prices, but there is no way you can one-off build a Champ clone from scratch and come out ahead $$$ wise.  And by "clone" I mean a reasonable visual copy - proper chassis, cabinet, maybe even a faceplate.  Throwing everything together into a project box so you have to keep the pets & kids away while you play the thing does not count.  Going by the initial post, $$$ is the #1 primary concern - little $$$ to build, no $$$ later for large improvements.  In that case, used is your best bet.

Quote from: cd

Quote from: Ansilcircuit also has quite a few nice capacitors cheap there too..  there are plenty of resources on the web to find great deals.

If you don't buy as much as you can from one place, or locally, you're shooting yourself in the foot because of shipping costs.  

Look, I don't want to get into a d*ck waving contest over prices, but there is no way you can one-off build a Champ clone from scratch and come out ahead $$$ wise.  And by "clone" I mean a reasonable visual copy - proper chassis, cabinet, maybe even a faceplate.  Throwing everything together into a project box so you have to keep the pets & kids away while you play the thing does not count.  Going by the initial post, $$$ is the #1 primary concern - little $$$ to build, no $$$ later for large improvements.  In that case, used is your best bet.

One word about the Octal Fatness: The 6SJ7 tubes are readily available on ebay for cheap. I got three of them for $15.00...

;lkj

If you want to build replicas of popular amps checkout:
www.ceriatone.com
His prices are very reasonable. Nik is a great guy and really helpful. I'm going to buy a matchless spitfire kit from him. He sells custom wound transformer sets (PT, OT choke) for $60 which he mentioned is better than the hammond stuff.

nice link there

I've built a Tweed Deluxe and a Marshall 18 watter. The Vox AC-30 is supposed to be one of the more difficult builds and probably not a good idea as a first project. There are some Matchless projects that are Class-A bias and might get a Vox-like sound in a simpler project.

Mt first project was from a kit and I think this is a very good way to start. I got mine from Clark Amplification but he doesn't sell them now. I have noticed that there are several companies selling nice looking kits though. Maybe you should check out these too.

http://www.tubetoneamps.com/index.html

http://www.missionamps.com/

http://elektro.cmhnet.org/~graydon/18wattmain.html

These amps look great but... they're still little combos!

We want great powerful rock n roll Heads ! NO?

ok you got me... i forget about the vox thing i believe you're right
now i am thinking between a fender,octal fatness and something from ax84. may be p1 extreme but from the samples i heard i'm not too impressed about it
all i want is a tube amp with a nice clean channel where i can use all the pedals i have bought or built for small club gigs...

any sound samples from the octal fatness Doug?

[;lkj

I have some sounds of my Octal Fatness on my OF page, too.

Question:
Can i survive in the studio with an Octal Fatness plugged into a 4x12 cabinet while the other guitarist has a marshall valvestate 100W.or do i have to build something with more wattage like the p1 extreme?

uh oh....you've got an opposite view. keeping up with a 100W valvestate is no easy task. something like that won't be easy at all. You'd need a big amp(like a Bassman (the 4x10 one)). An octal fatness is like a champ. In that case you have no luck. you'll get better tube tone than him, and most amps will be cheaper than a valvestate (those things are crazily overpriced). As we all said, i'd go for a small amp, then later make like a 50 or 100W plexi (cranked 100W plexi into a 4 x 12 combo is just painfullly loud).

Well, it depends on how loud he plays that 100 watt amp. If it's at modest levels, you may not have a problem at all. I took my Octal Fatness to church one day just to see it could keep up. Our stage level is about 90dB, and we mic the amps and all that stuff. Anyhow, it did fine, and I didn't have all the controls dimed, either. FWIW.

you're right, but i still think, you can't build a champ-like-amp in the eyes that with a 4x12, it's be loud. You gotta under stand that you can keep up with a decent amp, but not massive ones. First amp you build should be for learning and maybe some studio where yhou can get nice dimed amp tone without blown eardrums (try diming a plexi 100 with a 4x12 in a small room, and see how your eardrums react).  If your not to experianced that is. If your real good, you can shoot a plexi down as your first project, but maintainance for high voltage circuits etc... must be learned gracefully before takling one of those (like go through a nice little amp to learn how to deal with Hi-Pot circuits.

Really if you think you can take it, I nice loud amp would be something like a Fender Pro 5E5 that has two inst. inputs, and two mic input (good for studio) plus indiv. volumes for each, is about 50Watts, and has a lower parts count (but has 6 tubes including rectifier), or something like a vibro lux(5 tubes (2 6V6)) which has nice volume + reverb.

Thats my advice.

I do small club gigs with an unmiked Traynor WRYCV20 that is 15 watts Class A. The other guitar player uses a Peavey Classic 50 and our drummer is not known for restraint, and I keep up OK. SO you don't necc. need big watts. As far as building an amp goes, I know this is a DIY forum, but it really sounds like buying used would be your best bet if your main concern is cost and having something to play at gigs. You could start gigging a lot sooner and make a few bucks to pay for your DIY project  :lol:

Kerry M